Grand Rapids beat out bigger cities like St. Louis, San Diego, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee for “Best Beer City in the U.S.” in the USA Today’s Readers’ Choice Awards.
Since winning its first poll as Beer City in 2009, Grand Rapids’ beer industry has continued to earn recognition from Travel + Leisure Magazine, CNN Travel, the New York Times, Expedia and other publications.
Lindsey Rodarmer is the Communications Director for Founders Brewing based in Grand Rapids.
She says Founders alone sees 5000 people a year come for a brewery tour, and such so-called “beer tourism” is good for the whole area.
“It's really a draw to the city. We hear from a lot of our visitors that Founders is the first place that they stop and then they go to all of the other amazing breweries that we have in town on the ‘Ale Trail’ as we call it, so we're just so excited.”
Experts with Experience Grand Rapids, the marketing group for the city and Kent County, say the beer industry helps drive the regional tourism economy and helps build the character of the community as an asset the team uses to brand and promote the area as a great place to live, work or go to college.
Their 2019 study found beer tourism brought 94,000 visitors who spent nearly $24 million in Kent County.
